Matches (3)

ENG vs IND (1)

WI vs PAK (1)

U19 Tri Series (ZIM) (1)

IND

224 & 396

ENG

(T:374) 247 & 367

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Schedule Report Videos Series

PAK

189/4

(20 ov, T:190) 176/6

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Schedule Report Series

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There's life in the old dog yet

Martin Williamson on a remarkable finale to the 2007 Championship season

Martin Williamson

22-Sep-2007

One wicket from victory ... and the title. But there was still a four-and-a-half hour wait © Getty Images

The County Championship takes more than its fair share of flak. Uncompetitive, poorly supported, irrelevant .... only this week Bob Willis, one of its most vociferous detractors, weighed in with some all-too-familiar gripes.

And yet it produced one of the most enthralling finales to a season in memory. It might not be perfect but, when it can generate such prolonged tension as it did today, it still has life and purpose.

As the final day of the season began Durham sat at the top of the table courtesy of their three-day victory over Kent. Sussex still had to polish off an obdurate Worcestershire while, at The Oval, Lancashire were chasing a distant target of 489 and a place in history. Most people had written them off.

Sussex, heavily disguised as Mushtaq Ahmed, duly did their bit in an hour and a half. The large crowd at Hove celebrated in a restrained way and then turned their attention to the match in London. Hundreds continued to mill around the County Ground like expectant fathers, unwilling to let go of the season until their county's fate was known. The PA advised them to head off and come back later. Few took any notice and chose to bask and wait with their fellow fans in the late-September sunshine.

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Klusener onslaught fails to bring a win

A round-up from the final day of the final round of matches in the County Championship's Division Two

Cricinfo staff

22-Sep-2007

Northamptonshire's Lance Klusener enlived a meaningless last day against Derbyshire at Derby with a 65-ball 86 as his side fell short after being set a target of 356 in 64 overs. They finished on 229 for 4. Derbyshire batted through till lunch when they declared on 208 for 7, 17-year-old Dan Redfern scoring his maiden first-class half century.

Northamptonshire lost two wickets in the first three overs and slipped to 80 for 4 as a home victory appeared on the cards. But Klusener and Nicky Boje launched a Twenty20-type assault to add 100 runs in a little over 10 overs before both captains agreed to call time at the start of the last hour.

For the third day running there was no play at Cardiff where the match between Glamorgan and Gloucestershire.

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Rampant India edge home in humdinger

Yuvraj Singh's electrifying 70 led the batting charge and Sreesanth delivered the telling blows with the ball as India produced a magnificent performance to beat Australia by 15 runs

The Bulletin by Dileep Premachandran

22-Sep-2007

India 188 for 5 (Yuvraj 70, Johnson 2-31) beat Australia 173 for 7 (Hayden 62, Sreesanth 2-12) by 15 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Team	Mat	Won

Incandescent: Yet another effortless innings from Yuvraj Singh gave India the platform to beat Australia © AFP

Yuvraj Singh's electrifying 70 led the batting charge and Sreesanth delivered the telling blows with the ball as India produced a magnificent performance to beat Australia by 15 runs and set up a dream all-subcontinent final against Pakistan at the ICC World Twenty20. For much of their pursuit of 189, Australia were well in contention, with Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds muscling balls to the rope, but India kept their nerve superbly to clinch another famous victory.

Thousands of Indian flags were waved with abandon as Kingsmead came to resemble Little India, but Australia were still marginal favourites with 41 needed from the final four overs. Symonds was still there, having biffed his way to 43 from 25 balls, but the moment Irfan Pathan pegged back his off stump with a delivery that evaded the attempted cut, the momentum shifted decisively towards India.

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Pakistan cruise to six-wicket win

New Zealand's least-favourite claim to fame is their status as cricket's most reliable semi-finalists, and that pattern was repeated in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20

Andrew Miller

22-Sep-2007

Pakistan 147 for 4 (Nazir 59) beat New Zealand 143 for 8 (Gul 4-15) by six wickets
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Imran Nazir put Pakistan into the final with 59 from 41 balls © Getty Images

New Zealand's least-favourite claim to fame is their status as cricket's most reliable semi-finalists. In five of the nine World Cups they have reached that stage of the tournament and gone no further, and that pattern was repeated in the inaugural ICC World Twenty20.

Chasing 144 for a place in the final, a late wobble from Pakistan's middle-order wasn't enough to turn the match back in New Zealand's favour. Imran Nazir led the assault with a 41-ball 59, adding 60 in seven overs with Mohammad Hafeez, before the captain, Shoaib Malik, sealed the match with a six with seven balls remaining.

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Lancashire go down fighting as Sussex secure title

A round-up from the final day of the final round of matches in the County Championship's Division One

Cricinfo staff

22-Sep-2007

Chris Adams celebrates as Sussex are confirmed as champions © Getty Images

It was a remarkable finale to the season, the title race going down to the last ball of the last match. The day ebbed and flowed but in the end Lancashire fell agonisingly, tantalisingly short of ending 73 years of waiting for a Championship. The title was Sussex's, but it was a damned close-run thing.

Lancashire's quest ended in heroic failure after a nail-biting season finale at The Oval. Having been set a county record 489 to win against Surrey, Lancashire fell 24 runs short as their last remaining hope, Dominic Cork, was bowled by Murtaza Hussain for 47 with the shadows lengthening and four-and-a-bit overs remaining.

On what the groundsman Bill Gordon told Cricinfo was "still a decent track", Lancashire lost two early wickets before VVS Laxman and Stuart Law set them on their way. At lunch they were 178 for 2, up with the asking rate of five an over, and they continued that pace in the afternoon, despite losing Laxman for a superb hundred. The match turned in the penultimate over of the afternoon session when Jade Dernbach removed Law and Steve Croft.

Lancashire's tail refused to buckle. Glenn Chapple made 29 and Sajid Mahmood 26, but Surrey continued to chip away to keep Sussex and Lancashire supporters on tenterhooks. When Oliver Newby was dismissed by Jade Dernbach for 4, Lancashire were still 37 runs adrift with only the No. 11 Gary Keedy to come, and valiantly though they tried, the requirement was just too much.

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India take series after rain abandoned match

India A have won the two-match Test series against South Africa A by a 1-0 margin after the second Test in Dharamsala was abandoned after three consecutive days of no play due to heavy rain

Cricinfo staff

22-Sep-2007

South Africa A 264 for 4 (Petersen 109, Amla 49, Dippenaar 49) drew with India A
Scorecard

India A have won the two-match Test series against South Africa A by a 1-0 margin after the second Test in Dharamsala was abandoned with no play possible on three consecutive days due to heavy rain.

Umpires SK Tarapore and GA Pratap Kumar called off the match at 10 am after the outfield was left waterlogged due to morning showers. Though this was a frustrating outing for both teams, South Africa will consider themselves hard done by, since they had ended the first day at 264 for 4.

Paras Mhambrey, the India A coach, was satisfied with the teams performance in the series. "We were looking forward to win the game and get the series 2-0, but can't help the elements," Mhambrey told PTI. "I am happy with the first match in which we clinched the victory in three days. Our spinners troubled their batsmen and our batsmen scored double centuries. So it was a satisfying series for us."

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Jaques century gives Australia upper hand

The Australians are 327 runs ahead having lost only two second innings wickets at the end of the third day of their match against Pakistan A at Lahore

Cricinfo staff

21-Sep-2007

Australia A 293 and 288 for 2 (Jaques 136, Hussey 69*, Rogers 54) lead Pakistan A (Ahmed 61, Bollinger 5-15) by 327 runs
Scorecard

Phil Jaques scored a brisk century to give Australia A the upper hand at the end of the third day of their match against Pakistan A at Lahore. The Australians are 327 runs ahead having lost only two second-innings wickets.

Chris Rogers, the West Australian batsman, hit a rapid 54 and shared a century partnership with fellow opener Jaques to make amends for his first-innings duck.

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Sussex close in on Championship title

A round-up from the third day of the final round of matches in the County Championship's Division One

Cricinfo staff at The Oval

21-Sep-2007

Sussex closed in on their third Championship in five years after enforcing the follow on against Worcestershire at Hove and reducing the visitors to 190 for 5 at close, still 129 runs short of making Sussex bat again. It had appeared that the match would be done and dusted inside three days when Mushtaq Ahmed grabbed three wickets in as many overs to reduce Worcestershire to 117 for 5, but Moeen Ali (72*) and Gareth Batty (32*) put on an unbeaten 73 for the sixth wicket to take the game into a fourth day. Earlier, Mushtaq took 6 for 93 and Jason Lewry 3 for 44 as Worcestershire lost their last seven first-innings wickets for 61. With the weather forecast good for tomorrow, Sussex will fancy polishing off proceedings in the morning.

Durham put themselves top of the Championship - if only for a day - with an eight-wicket win over Kent at Canterbury. Kent, who resumed on 99 for 3, offered little resistance, losing their last seven wickets in the morning session. Paul Wiseman, who finished with 4 for 45, and Ottis Gibson, who took his season tally to 80 wickets, polished off the tail. Durham took 10.1 overs to knock off the 52 runs they needed, although Kent, who bowled Robert Key and Geraint Jones - Martin Saggers kept wicket - hardly pressed them.

Dominic Cork congratulates Mark Ramprakash on his second hundred of the match as Lancashire's title hopes faded at a gloomy Oval © Martin Williamson

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Somerset end on a winning high

A round-up from the third day of the final round of matches in the County Championship's Division Two

Cricinfo staff

21-Sep-2007

Champions Somerset took half-an-hour to complete an innings-and-121-run win over second-placed Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge. Mike Munday took two of the three wickets to fall, finishing with career-best figures of 8 for 55 - he had never taken more than three wickets in a Championship innings before. Ryan Sidebottom fell for a duck and then Jason Gallian, in his final match for the county, batted at No. 10 because of a back problem and made 14. Ian Blackwell polished off the innings by bowling Paul Franks. Somerset, who set a second division record of 266 points, were presented with the trophy in front of the pavilion.

Essex finished their season with an emphatic 10-wicket win over Middlesex inside three sessions Chelmsford. Following on 194 in arrears, Middlesex resumed on 104 for 3 and soon lost Ed Smith, trapped lbw by Tony Palladino, and he should have had two in two but Tim Phillips at slip dropped Jamie Dalrymple. Eoin Morgan with Dalrymple and then Ben Scott kept Essex at bay while making 71 but Middlesex's last five wickets added only 21. Varun Chopra and Grant Flower knocked off the runs in 17.1 overs.

Derbyshire solidified their position against Northamptonshire securing a 223-run lead in the second innings at Derby, with seven wickets in hand. Resuming on 132 for 4, Northants added a further 101 runs before subsiding 147 runs behind at the turn. Jonathan Clare again impressed, with four wickets, and there were four too for Tom Lungley. Rain halted Derbyshire's second dart, and when they resumed they lost three wickets in a flurry: Paul Borrington, one short of a fifty opening stand with Steve Stubbings; then Hassan Adnan (4) and Greg Smith (8) both fell cheaply to Nicky Boje. Stubbings, though, is well placed on 46.

For the second day running there was no play in the match between Glamorgan and Gloucestershire at Cardiff .

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Rain washes out third day as well

Heavy overnight rain washed out the third day of the second Test between India A and South Africa A in Dharamsala without a ball being bowled

Cricinfo staff

21-Sep-2007

South Africa A 264 for 4 (Petersen 109, Amla 49, Dippenaar 49) v India A
Scorecard

Heavy overnight rain washed out the third day of the second Test between India A and South Africa A in Dharamsala without a ball being bowled. Umpires SK Tarapore and GA Pratap Kumar held their first inspection at 11.30 AM and decided to call off play. With a day left, South Africa's chances of squaring the series are virtually ruled out. They ended the first day in a good position at 264 for 4. No play was possible on the second day as well.

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Greg Chappell

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